Top Flight 07-2019 | Page 124

English Summar y Number 07 /116/ July 2019 TOP FLIGHT La Garrotxa VOLCANOES AND FORESTS T There is the unique La Gar- rotxa Volcanic Zone Natu- ral Park to the north-west of the Costa Brava coast. Found- ed in 1982 and being the only one on the Iberian Peninsu- la, it covers an area of more than 12,000 hectares and consists of four dozen dor- mant volcanoes aged between 350,000 and 11,000 years. The last time the Croscat volca- no erupted 11,500 years ago at this place, still the echoes of the volcanic activity hap- pened much later too — the last earthquake with human losses occurred in 1428, and it even reached Barcelona. In 1901 and 1902, the force of na- ture was felt again but caused only minor destruction. Nowadays, once lour gi- ants have been overgrown with grass and trees (not ev- erywhere you can see their former craters) but left a spe- cial climate behind, a unique flora, hilly relief with natural panoramic sites and volca- nic rocks facing the surface — ash, gravel, and basalt. A de- veloped network of various walking routes has been de- signed in the park, which can be walked or ridden by a bike, segway or donkey. It is espe- cially nice here at the end of spring when the hills are cov- ered with a carpet of scar- let poppies. The territory of the na- tional park is 90 percent pri- vate but protected by the state; moreover, La Garrotxa is not only hills and extinct volcanoes but also a few nice small towns which reflect a variety of epochs and styles — the Middle Ages and Jew- ish heritage, Renaissance, Art Nouveau and modern aes- thetics. Monestir de Sant Joan les Fonts is a Benedic-